Category: United States

A Prayer for Our Country Before Election Day 2024

Our God and God of our ancestors, with hope and humility we approach Election Day, the day on which We the People will choose the individuals who will govern our nation, our states, and our communities.

You have abundantly blessed the United States of America with freedom, security, prosperity, and the right to democratic self-government.  You made it possible for the founders of our country to fulfill the command of Your Torah, to “proclaim liberty throughout the land, and unto all the inhabitants thereof.”

Daily we pray to You to restore our leaders as in former times.  On this Election Day, help us to remember that in America we are responsible for choosing our own leaders, and that the survival of our democracy, and the well-being of generations of Americans to come, depend upon the care we take in those choices.

Daily we pray to You for knowledge, discernment and wisdom.  On this Election Day grant us those blessings in full, so that we may consider our choices with knowledge and vote with discernment and wisdom, with the best interests of our country and our communities in mind.

Daily we pray to You to subdue the arrogant in our time.  On Election Day, and every day, help us to subdue the arrogance within ourselves.  Open our hearts and minds to consider the opinions of our fellow citizens, as we call upon them to consider ours.

Strengthen our will to fulfill our duties to our country and to one another.  To exercise our precious right to vote.  And to do all we can to ensure that every legal vote is counted, regardless of the candidate or party for whom it is cast.

May it be Your will that our decisions this Election Day preserve this country as a wellspring of liberty and a beacon of tolerance and democracy for the entire world.

And let us say Amen.

A prayer for Memorial Day

Our God and God of our ancestors,
as we [prepare to] observe another Memorial Day in America,
bless us with the gifts of memory and understanding,
that we may appreciate the true meaning of this [that] day,
an annual occasion to honor the brave men and women
who gave their lives for our country
and for their fellow citizens.

God of compassion,
let those who made the ultimate sacrifice,
so that we may live in freedom,
rest in peace,
honored by a grateful nation.
Remember their parents,
partners,
children
and all the loved ones they left behind.
Protect and comfort them;
bring them peace.

 
God of justice,
remind us of the debt we owe
to those who lost their lives in the defense of our nation,
and to the families that go on without them.
Fill the heart of every American
with pride in those who served,
and caring concern for their survivors.

 
May it be Your will
that every American be re-dedicated
to the task of building a nation
worthy of the sacrifices made by our honored dead.
And may it be Your will, also,
that all of us pursue a just peace throughout the world,
so that no more lives are lost in armed conflict
anywhere in Your creation.

by David Abernethy

David Abernethy practices law in the Philadelphia area and is a member of the Beth Am Israel community in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania.
And let us say Amen.

Gun violence is a deadly issue, but a symptom. 

We often forget or become numb to how commonplace the daily carnage has become.

And because of our numbness, we require a mass casualty event to jolt our senses and awareness.

Sadly, this means that the lives of all the individuals murdered go unnoticed. The tragic loss of children becomes part of the daily process, cold statistics not unlike the cold bodies left in the wake of this national nightmare.

We must accept that although many consider shooting a sport (hunting, target practice, etc.), the purpose of a gun is to serve as a deadly weapon. A gun is used to kill. And outside the hunter’s blind or shooting range, most guns ultimately aim at people, and people die.

There are many reasons for the prevalence of guns and the ensuing gun violence. But at its core is a fundamental rejection of a basic premise of our society, namely, we are a nation of laws. If those laws are not applied rigorously and uniformly, then grievance arises, and the need to take the law into our own hands ensues.

The mass shooters and street thugs flout the law, and the victims ultimately pay the price of a society unable or unwilling to abide by its own standards of civility.

Taking the guns off the streets is a fantasy or perhaps just a fool’s errand. Only when we fully commit to a holistic approach that requires defending the weak and addressing the issues underlying the reasons people turn to guns, including mental health, lax enforcement of the law, political expediency, and twisting the Second Amendment to paralyze serious conversations, might we as a society begin the process of confronting and vanquishing this scourge.

As the co-chair of the Domestic Affairs Committee of the JCRC of Greater Philadelphia, we are committing ourselves to the issue of Gun Responsibility within the greater context of a Safe Cities Initiative. Our safe city approach is complex and challenging and without a quick fix. But the longer-term payoffs are significant. So I hope we can galvanize our community to engage in this hard work on behalf of all of us.

 

 

In order to form a more perfect union, the work must continue

 

We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

 

חזק ועמץ   Strength and Courage

The Unfulfilled promise of Juneteenth

June 19th is celebrated in American history as the date when the slaves were freed (it actually was the day when Union Troops entered Texas to enforce the final ending of slavery on June 19, 1865, three years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of Sept 22, 1862).  Juneteenth, as it is known, remains an aspiration.  Today, in this special moment in time we find so much of America is still unfulfilled; Ideals yet to be achieved, dreams yet to realized.  America was the Promised Land for so many, but the promise is a work in progress, a distant goal for far too many.

On this Juneteenth let us affirm our commitment to make this special place one that extends ideals of equal justice, liberty, and equality to everyone.  It is a long road ahead, but it is a journey worth traveling.

Find a group that promotes our sacred values such as the ADL, the ACLU, the Innocence Project, Repairers of the Breach, and support them.  Learn how to help create the changes to make our society juster and fairer for all.  Celebrate Freedom on Juneteenth and every day thereafter.